OGDEN, Utah — Trains and Christmas trees are two things that have long been linked.
But why and how did the tradition start? And why are so many people drawn to the idea of having a toy train under their tree?
To find the answer, FOX 13 News turned to the Wonderful World of Trains in Ogden.
“It's fun to watch their eyes go as big as a dinner plate and their jaw hit the floor,” owner Dale Spaulding said. "The trains come out at Christmas time... It's just kind of nice.”
He has been buying, selling and collecting trains since he was little and doesn’t plan on stopping anytime soon.
“When I was a boy, [I] lived out in Hooper and you couldn't look anywhere in this area and not see a train," he said. “The older I got, the more [they] grew on me.”
That railroad lineage that runs through Utah was the talk of children as many kids dreamed of traveling on the famous trains that pulled through stations in the state.
With that, kids wanted an engine of their own — and because a full-sized steam train can’t fit in your living room, the smaller variety became popular.
Spaulding as a young boy visited the George A. Lowe hardware building in Ogden frequently, which happened to have a very large collection of toy trains.
“In those days, hardware companies were the ones that sold toys, and amongst the toys that they sold were Lionel Trains," he said.
Lionel Trains were really the start of it all for Spaulding, and Lionel is also where the story of finding trains under trees started.
Originally, Lionel started by selling an electrified little cart that was meant to carry toys around a track system in holiday window displays.
Joshua Lionel Cowen walked into a local store and had the idea to build what became dubbed the Electric Express.
He sold it to the shop owner and stopped back again a few days later. No toys had sold, but Lionel’s cart system — even if it wasn’t up for sale — received at least five orders.
The tracks that the cart ran on soon became the basis for miniature trains to steam their way under Christmas trees and in pretty much every home across the country during the 1920s and 30s.
By the 50s and 60s, trains from all sorts of companies were growing in popularity — and that’s right around the time that Spaulding tried to go into a local hobby shop to find Lionel Trains.
After being told that a local store didn’t nor would it ever sell Lionel Trains (with folded arms, he adds), Spaulding's mind went from getting trains of his own to selling them where there was a need.
“I went to my dad and borrowed $125 from [him] in 1971, and then went and bought four Lionel train sets from the wholesaler in Salt Lake and come back, sold them, and parlayed it all from there," he said. "But so far, it's worked out pretty good… Still here 51 years.”
The collection he has is very impressive — replicating sets from old catalogs, TV shows, and even Ogden in the 1950s which also mimics the setup in that hardware store he frequented as a boy.
The city model has everything, including a functioning Motor Vu drive-in theater that shows the top three movies of 1956: "Love Me Tender," "Giant," and "The 10 Commandments."
“We don't get lost in it, but boy,” Spaulding said, "It'd sure be nice to have it back again for a while.”
Because of that spirit, trains have become a generational pastime.
"It's a great feeling, feeling of accomplishment for any father or any child, that's able to put a train set together and make it work," Spaulding said. “It's really kind of fun because there are not that many things that can link up one generation to another to another to another.”
So as the holiday season chugs into town, this small store in Ogden keeps those dreams of trains alive in all those who leave with a train in hand and a smile on their face.
“That makes the whole day,” Spaulding said. “That's what we live for: Selling the trains. It's just wonderful.”
